Nice Boat!

Pictured at the right is the prettiest lobster boat we've ever seen. She is the Sea Hooker, a working lobster boat owned by Jay Sahagian, proprietor of Marblehead seafood mainstay The Barnacle.

Next up is the new Numbers, an IRC 66-footer designed by Rolf Vrolijk, built by Eric Goetz and owned by longtime Marblehead resident (currently of Boston and Newport) Dan Meyers. According to Dan, his new boat is like nothing he's ever driven before - and he's driven quite a few (this one's #6 in the series). The boat's shakedown event, the IRC East Coast Championship, resulted in a narrow last-race loss to John Kilroy and his very well-sailed Samba Pa Ti (TP 52), and we expect nothing but great things from Dan and his new hot rod.

While we've not yet geared Jay up, we have outfitted Dan and his team with custom gear. They report that the stuff works better than advertised, and we think they look pretty good.

Big Wind

Bottom's falling out of the barometer, and the offshore buoy data shows gusts above 50 knots. Look's like Noel's coming by for a visit this afternoon.

All in all, we'd rather be in Annapolis right now where Dan Meyers and his crew of Alinghi guys are hanging tough at the IRC East Coasts in Annapolis as they work out the kinks in his new IRC 66-footer Numbers. This is the boat's first event, and we're particularly interested in how they're doing as they are sporting a full line of Atlantis gear. So regardless of how they fare, at least they'll be dry and comfortable.

Based on the buoy readings from Annapolis, it looks like they dodged a bullet as the 50-60 knot gusts they got there were very early this morning. They're racing now, and based on the satellite imagery, it looks like the sun's about to come out there.

Not here though. Noel's closing in on New England, and here at AWG HQ, the noise level is steadily increasing. Yesterday saw the frenzy of boat extraction that typically precedes the first northeaster of the fall. Though this year wasn't quite as crazy as usual as it arrived so late in the season that most boats were already out.

Here's the view of the town docks with ramps up from our office in the boatyard:

After this one, the hatches will be well and truly battened down here, and we'll start looking forward to spending a bit of time on the slopes in between Florida regattas. The Etchells winter circuit kicks off the 2nd weekend in December, right around the same time as the Palm Beach Race, and the big one, Peter Craig's Key West Race Week, starts January 14th. Hope we see everyone there.

Cars with surfboards on top are starting to show up at Devereaux Beach to take advantage of the killer point break that starts up when the wind's out of the northeast. We're gonna go do a little spectating.

AWG out.